Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas - The editor and big chief of The Dubrovnik Times. Born in the UK he has been living and working in Dubrovnik since 1998, yes he is one of the rare “old hands.” A unique insight into both British and Croatian life and culture, Mark is often known as just “Englez” or Englishman. He is a traveller, a current affairs freak and a huge AFC Wimbledon fan.

This year one of the largest European events of its kind the Health Tourism Industry (HTI) conference will take place in Istria, Croatia.

The prestigious HTI conference which is to be held at the Hotel Lone in Rovinj from the 28th of February to the 2nd of March will gather leading national and international experts as well as the Hollywood star Eva LaRue, well known for her role as the CSI detective Natalia Boa Vista.

This year's seventh edition of the HTI conference will be interesting for its innovative integrated gathering, which apart from the conference on medical tourism includes two more international events – ILHA's (International Luxury Hotel Association) European Luxury Hospitality Summit and Taste the Mediterranean Festival.

The main speakers at the HTI conference will be the president of the American Medical Tourism Association Jonathan Edelheit, the president of the European Historic Thermal Towns Association Giuseppe Bellandi, the expert from Croatia Dr Dragan Primorac, whilst the famous Hollywood actress Eva LaRue, who is also an expert in luxury travel, will hold a special lecture.

The Croatian Tourist Board will also participate at the HTI conference whose workshop for health tourism ''Buy Croatia'' will gather more than 40 large service customers from all over the world.

The HTI conference will be organized in cooperation with the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) and under the patronage of the President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism.

The start of General, new project of director Antun Vrdoljak, is just around the corner. New movie and television series will start being filmed in the second half of February and will show the life of general Ante Gotovina.

The interesting thing is that Gotovina should be played by Goran Visnjic, Croatian actor with Hollywood adress and Vrdoljak's son in law, while Gotovina's first wife, Columbian Ximena Dalel, is supposed to be played by Penelope Cruz. Other actors that will apparently join the cast are Natasa Janjic, Tarik Filipovic and Goran Navojec. The buzz about this movie started almost two years ago but it seems that it will finally come to realisation. Casting agency Serena made a casting call, searching for males in the Gospic area and extras of any age in the Zadar area.

“Mr. President can you make Croatia third,” a brilliant spoof video released yesterday jokingly asks Donald Trump to make Croatia third. As the video suggest Trump always puts America first, and then the video authors suggest that Germany is put in second place and Croatia in third.

This hilarious video is the brainchild of the Croatian comedian Ivan Saric and opens with “A message from the government of the Republic of Croatia.” And Dubrovnik and its walls even get a mention; Trump is a fan of walls and Dubrovnik has big walls all around it. And Croatian politicians feel the wrath of the comedians.

Cromaris's ''Well raised fish'' from the cleanest parts of the Adriatic Sea has thrilled owners of the Poster House museum in New York with its creativity.

The latest issue of one of the world's leading magazines for creativity in market communications ''Lürzer's Archive'' recently published advertisements of the largest sea fish farming company in Croatia 'Cromaris' under the title ''Well raised fish''. After seeing the ad, the Poster House museum called Cromaris and expressed its interest in including the innovative ad in the form of a poster in the permanent collection of global creative achievements.

The ad which thrilled the creative industry was designed by the agency Bruketa & Zinic OM with the main goal of informing potential consumers that fresh fish from the Adriatic sea is truly ''Well raised fish'' due to the exceptional ecological farming and special attention paid to their breeding in the clear Croatian sea waters.

The Cromaris company has five top class breeding farms located in northern and central Adriatic well known for technologically modern process of fish farming in the open sea and innovative concept of manufacturing ''from the sea to you'' which ensures that fresh farmed fish is delivered to shops throughout Europe in the minimum period of time.

As part of the Adris Group, Cromaris is the largest producer of fresh sea bream, sea bass and shell fish in Croatia and is among the top ten leading producers in the world. Around 75 percent of company's total revenue is achieved on foreign markets.

The American History Channel filmed their serial Knightfall in July last year and now the trailer is out. It's easy to recognize the Bay of Pile, directly outside of the historic City Walls, where the most of the explosions and sword fights have been filmed.

The plot follows the Templars and their quest for the Holy Grail. Dubrovnik is a fitting location for the serial as according to legend King Richard the Lionheart was left shipwrecked in 1192 on his way back from the crusades and was saved by swimming to the island of Lokrum in front of the city. He vowed to build a cathedral on the place where his foot touched land; however the Republic of Dubrovnik convinced him that the city was a much more suitable location for such a worthy gesture. The legend suggests that the English King then gave gold to build the first cathedral in Dubrovnik, at the time the most expensive cathedral in Europe.

According to the trailer, Dubrovnik will have an important role in the serial. We are looking forward to it.

Dubrovnik is a perfect place to spend your honeymoon and it's been like that for ages! Even world famous writer Agatha Christie spent her second honeymoon in this beautiful city. According to some book lovers websites, trip was planned by her husband Max Mallowman, a prominent British archaeologist and included Italy, Yugoslavia (Dubrovnik and Split) and Greece.

It seems that they had a great time, especially in Croatia, which was then part of Yugoslavia. According to the website BooksPlease, which included Yugoslavia to the A-Z list of Agatha Christie, couple had enourmous fun with the menus written in Yugoslavian, as they didn’t know what they were ordering and none of the restaurants ever wished them to pay the bill.

In case you didn't know, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist in history, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime.

Game of Thrones is the gift that just keeps on giving for Dubrovnik. Countless articles have appeared in the world’s media and fans of the HBO serial flock to the city every year to see the locations.

The latest promotion for Dubrovnik comes from the renowned American broadcaster ABC News. The journalist Aicha El-Hammar Castano went on a guided our around the city to see the locations from the popular serial with Dubrovnik guide Tea Bundalo.

The Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic begun a two-day official visit to Kuwait on the 5th of February in order to discuss the development of economic relations between the two countries and to open the Croatian Embassy in Kuwait.

On the first day of her visit the Croatian president held meetings with the Kuwaiti Oil and Power Minister Essam Abdul Mohsen Al-Marzouq, the Ruler and Emir of Kuwait Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah as well as with other senior Kuwaiti officials.

"I am very satisfied with the meeting with the emir. The emphasis of this visit is definitely on the economy. We have considered a series of agreements that we would like to sign in order to facilitate doing business between Kuwait and Croatia. We have, of course, discussed concrete projects," said Grabar-Kitarovic.

She also added that those projects referred to the food and manufacturing industries and that there were great possibilities for Croatian construction companies to do business in Kuwait in the field of infrastructure, railway lines etc.

The Kuwaiti emir and the Croatian president also discussed the political and security cooperation in efforts to stabilize that part of the Middle East and the southeast of Europe.

During her stay in Kuwait Grabar-Kitarovic is being accompanied by the Economy Minister Martina Dalic, the Armed Forces Chief-Of-Staff Mirko Sundov, the Foreign Ministry State Secretary Zdravka Busic, and the head of the Islamic community in Croatia Mufti Aziz Hasanovic.

The Croatian delegation also includes executives of the Croatian companies Brodotrogir, ALAN, Djuro Djakovic, Croz and HS Produkt and the Croatian Tourism Board.